Drow
"Do not confuse me with an honorable, Lanciel knight. There is no honor to hide behind in the Dark. Honour is for the surface, for those who have the luxury of seeing their death approach from afar. You may laugh, but my ancestors smile on me, and you will die in a land your ancestors will never see" - Ozai Hunzai, Drow Sentinel The Drow are a race of elves adapted to the deep underground caverns of Logres. There are two subraces of Drow; Wicks known as White Elves and Sens known as Dark Elves. It is suspected that Drow originated from the Lanciel knights Loth and Senest who were trapped in the Shadowfell by the Giant sorceress Dùrnir during the end of The First Crusade. Drow are a very passionate people and many other races find them brash and quick to anger. Drow worship no consistent pantheon, but instead worship deceased ancestors as semi-omnipotent spiritual guardians. A highly territorial and secretive people, no one really knows what lands the Drow consider their own. Keeping hidden citadels deep within the Underdark, a subterranean traveler will most likely find out they have violated Drow territory when they feel the sharp pain of a knife entering their back. Drow have a deep appreciation for subterranean life and consider the preservation of natural underground ecosystems to be paramount. As such, they have grown to be a serious danger to mining operations and have started many wars with Dwarven clans. Physical Appearance Wicks have monochromatic skin ranging from stark colorless white to milky grey. Sens have rich dark skin that ranges from eggplant purple to deep impenetrable black and all shades of grey in between. Drow are the shortest Elvin race ranging from 4' to 5' tall and average 115 lbs. They have large almond eyes with extremely large pupils and irises that encompass the entirety of the visible eye with the white only visible if the eyeball is extracted from the skull. Drow irises are vibrantly colored and can be anything from blood red to sunlight yellow to elemental green to even neon pink. Wick irises are the only part of a Wick that has any saturated color. Drow ears are slightly larger than the other Elvin races and their hair can be any monochrome color from silver to black. History The Age of Heroes Not much is known of the Drow during the Age of Heroes. During this time there were the occasional Lanciel questline that described an encounter with a "corrupted elf of tainted skin", although descriptions of these corrupted being varies greatly, and it is suspected that some of these creatures were undead. The first reliable reference to a Drow is at the end of the Age of Heroes when the clan Dwohan began extensive strip mining of modern day Thorun Karag to supply the armies of the coming Civil War. A dwarven word wall found deep within a tomb in Thorun Karag tells of the massacre of a group of invading white skinned elves that had begun stealing the dwarve's gold. This is believed to be the first event of the Quaking Raids. The Civil War and the Age of Chaos During the time of the Civil War and the beginning of the Age of Chaos, unbeknownst to the surface world, the Dwarves of clan Dwohan and the recently discovered Drow of the Hunzai cadre were locked in a furious conflict known as the Quaking Raids. During these Raids clan Dwohan, at that time led by Grimz of Dwohan, suffered heavy losses as they encountered the magically adept Drow forces. Unable to meet demands of ore for the Civil War, the supply chains of both The Black Knight and Draco Arthure were cut short near the end of the war as the Drow drove deeper and deeper in the Dwohan fortresses. Eventually, circa 235 P.C., The Drow forces had gained almost total control of what is now called Thorun Karag, expelling the rest of the dwarves into the surrounding hills, many settling in The Kingdom of Bedivere. During the Age of Chaos the Drow would begin expanding their domain, slowly infiltrating neighboring cave systems while developing relations with the neighboring empires. Many Drow made their way to the Kingdom of Bedivere, gaining land either through trade or by force. It is believed that the strong presence of Drow magic users in Bedivere added significantly to the fear of sorcery in the Plains of Man that would eventually result in the Arcana Genocide. As the Drow cadre Hunzai expanded south they encountered a second clan of Dwarves, clan Balderk. Supposedly attacking on site, the Drow entered into another bloody conflict with a Dwarven clan. The War of Floating Coffins, so named for the unburried coffins that would eventually line the halls of the Underdark, would be one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts between Drow and Dwarves, leading to the still present hatred between the two races to this day. Toruk of Balderk, famed general and historian of that era, would go on to win a mighty victory for clan Balderk, eventually pushing the Drow out of Balderk Karag and leading a semi-successful campaign to retake Thorun Karag. The Drow invaders would not, however, be pushed North out of Balderk Karag, but down, fleeing deeper into the subterranean caverns of Logres. There the survivors of the campaign were said to have built a mighty city that stands beneath the mountain to this day. The Age of the Crescent Moon During the War of the Floating Coffins when cadre Hunzai pushed south, and were eventually routed, many Drow cadres chose instead to stay and build under Thorun Karag. When the Knights of the Crescent Moon began taking power in 419 P.C. the cadres Quave and Nyloth gave great support to Lords Renier Anor, Leo Breudelle, and Claudas Gaunnes. Sending large amounts of gold and iron from deep within their mountain, the Wick cadre Nyloth and the Sen cadre Quave spread their people all across Logres withe the Knights of the Crescent Moon, and both groups prospered. This relationship did not stay amicable forever, unfortunately. As wealthy Drow gained power in Logres the Mooners became wary of their power. Eventually discovering a plot by the matriarchs of cadres Nyloth and Quave to overthrow the Mooners, the Lords Anor, Gaunnes, and Breudelle acted quickly and brutally. Around the same time as this discovery the racial tension between human and Drow invader crescendoed when the temple to Kord in Navinstein was destroyed in a highly destructive arcane attack. Blaming Drow magicians, Czar Hervi III, the current King of Bedivere, declared all arcane magic illegal, and all arcane practitioners to be imprisoned and their lands seized. This did not go over well with the Drow who had been in the area for several generations now and had ancestors buried on their homestead. Asking the Crescent Moon for support, the Drow were forcibly pushed out of all their surface lands throughout Logres as inquisitors from Bedivere swept over the provinces eradicating arcane magics. This would come to be known as the Arcana Genocide. Furthering the destruction of the rebelling Drow cadres, the Knights of the Crescent Moon stopped trading with the Drow and struck an accord with clan Thorun, a dwarf clan that had been living in the hills East of Thorun Karag. Supported by the Mooners, clan Thorun would begin a bloody conflict with the Drow under the mountains called the War of the Black Lilies, so named for the lilies that would grow from the blood spilled in the tunnels of Thorun Karag. The Drow would be forced out of Thorun Karag to some unknown stronghold deep within, with clan Thorun seizing full power of Thorun Karag in 861 P.C. The Age of Gareth Since the Age of Gareth humankind has begun expanding deep into the ground searching for ore in this age of expansion. Mining hills and mountains on the edge of civilization, humanity has found cadres of Drow in the most unexpected regions, and the Drow do not take kindly to this invasion. The matriarchs of large Drow cadres have been openly hostile to any races expansions into its territory, and as a result the modern day public perception of Drow is one of violence and hatred. Culture Language Both Wicks and Sens speak Undercommon, an elvish-dwarven mash up. It contains the soft liquid sounds of elvish combined with the hard consonants of dwarfish. Structures Drow structures are mostly a mystery to scholars. Drow never let outsiders within their strongholds, and most travelers into Drow territory do not return. That being said, those who survive delving into Drow territory, or those Drow who have been accepted into the surface world, claim that Drow do not so much construct their own holds age much as they adapt the natural caverns of the Underdark to hold their people comfortably. Drow protect key entrances and exits within their dwellings with Drow Puzzle Doors, infamous arcane locks so powerful that they are nearly impossible to bypass without figuring out the solution. Drow tunnels are generally cleverly disguised with illusion and magic making them quite difficult to find. Religion Drow do not worship the New Gods as most cultures in Logres do. That being said, the apocryphal progenitor members of the Drow race, Loth and Senest, have been adopted as New Gods in the Fey Pantheon, and are worshiped by all Drow. Instead, Drow worship a pantheon of five archetypal ancestors, honoring them with shrines and daily offerings. These archetypes are the Warrior, the Trickster, the Scholar, the Craftsman, and the Stranger. These archetypes are not distinct gods, but instead, are positions to be filled by famous ancestors from a Drow family. A famous leader or war hero may serve as a family's Warrior ancestor, a cunning politician or infamous thief the Trickster, a wise magician or learned elder the Scholar, a hardworking laborer or gifted artist the Craftsman. These four archetypes represent opposing ideologies, and the traditional personification of the archetypes depict them as contrary and argumentative. The fifth archetype, the Stranger, is always a newcomer to the family, joined by marriage and never blood, representing both a mediator of the four other pantheon members, as well as a symbol of change. The ancestors which occupy the five positions in a Drow family pantheon are constantly changing to suit the political affiliations of the family; should a family start a feud with another family who shares a common pantheon ancestor, both families would normally switch the ancestor to someone who historically fit the archetype but has no blood relation to their new rival. Drow priests normally serve as keepers of ancestral lore, and Drow paladins are often following in the steps of a great Warrior in their lineage. Weapons and Armament If Drow ever used heavy armor or subscribed to the practice of knighthood they have long since forgotten. Drow make use of quick, versatile weapons that are easy to use in the close quarters of subterranean tunnels. Many Drow cadres are known to mount strange and diverse underground creatures, although which creature exactly is dependent on the local ecology surrounding said cadre.Category:Race Category:Culture Category:Elf